Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:13 pm on 14 October 2020.
Thank you for that answer, Minister. One opportunity you announced with great pride last month is the sustainable food packaging hub that you have invested £2 million in at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Flintshire. On the face of it, it sounds impressive, with the laudable aim of making food packaging more sustainable. But all that glisters is not gold, and the hub isn't good news, as it seems, is it? In fact, for some people it's very bad news indeed. In the press release you put out, the stated aims of the hub include increasing automation, and in your quote you talk about your desire to reduce reliance on manual labour. Increasing automation requires increased use of electricity, so although the packaging produced may be recyclable, its production process will have an increased carbon footprint, and reducing manual labour means shedding jobs. Far fewer employees will needed to run an automated production facility compared to one that relies on manual labour. You're spending £2 million of taxpayers' money in an effort to find out how you can make as many of those taxpayers redundant as possible. The packaging industry employs 85,000 in the UK, which represents 3 per cent of UK manufacturing output. You're supposed to be the Labour Party, not the 'less labour party'. So, Minister, I'd like to ask you how many low-skilled packaging workers will be sacked as a result of Labour's £2 million investment?